Monday, October 29, 2012

Biometric Notices for All I-131 Applicants (GC Holder)

The Nebraska Service Center (NSC) of the U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that, regardless of age,
all applicants who file for reentry permit or refugee travel document
(Form I-131) are being issued biometric appointment notices. The purpose
of these biometric appointments is to capture a digital photograph of
applicants who are not required to submit fingerprints. These NSC
statements came in response to questions submitted by the American
Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).

Background: I-131 Applications

Form I-131 is used when applying for several different types of
travel documents. The matters discussed here, however, are limited to
I-131 applications filed by lawful permanent residents ("green card"
holders) in order to obtain reentry permits and I-131 applications filed
by refugees in need of travel documents. Reentry permits are needed when permanent residents plan to remain
outside of the United States for more than one year.

Refugee travel documents are required if an individual holding
refugee or asylee status wishes to travel abroad and return to the
United States as a refugee or asylee. It is also used by foreign
nationals who obtained permanent residence through asylee or refugee
status, as an alternative to a passport.

Fingerprinting Not Required for I-131 Applicants of Certain Ages

The USCIS has indicated in written instructions that applicants under
the age of 14 or over the age of 79 do not need to be fingerprinted or
pay the additional biometric fee with their I-131 applications. Neither
do these applicants need to submit paper photographs with their I-131
filings. Some questions arose, therefore, when these individuals began
receiving biometric notices. The NSC informed AILA in September 2012
that the purpose for these individuals' biometric appointment notices is
to capture digital photographs, which make it easier for the USCIS to
produce the requested travel documents.

Paper Photographs May Still be Submitted with I-131s

AILA asked the NSC if fingerprint-exempt I-131 applicants could avoid
the need for biometrics appointments by submitting two paper
photographs along with their I-131 applications. The NSC confirmed that
this is possible for applicants under 14 or over 79 years of age. If
such applicants submit immigration compliant photographs at the time of
the I-131 filing, this eliminates their need for biometrics
appointments.

Welcome to MyGCVisa Blog. This blog and main MyGCVisa website is for all non-immigrants and immigrants (Employment Based, Family Based, GC Holder, US Citizen, Diversity Visa, DACA, etc) from 200+ countries.

On this site you wil find tons of resources to explain the complex immigration process. Plus there are lots of awesome readers ready to help in answering your question(s).

If this is your first visit, you can start out by reading the blog posts under "Popular News" section below. Keep going further down till you reach blog archive section, where you can go through all blog post written since 2012. If you stll have questions, feel free to post them.

If you havent done it yet, you can either view others or add your GC case to the GC Tracker. It covers I-130/NVC/PERM/I-140/I-485 applications. You can share or read others experience as they progress through this immigration journey.

The GC Forum is a large community (1000+ members) where you can ask or answer any immigration questions (or any other questions). Also, GC Calculator, updated every month with new data, will help you estimate when your PD may become current.

If you love immigration news, checkout 15 Minute News. It gives you the latest news from over 2000+ websites on any topic you want. It is automatically updated every 15 minutes.

In case some of you are wondering, everything on the site is free and created to help you in your immigration journey. You can also follow us on facebook and twitter to get latest updates on new blog post, news, etc.